Game of the Month July 2016 - Super Cool Story Bros

[Tarq 746]

Welcome to another installment of GotM! Due to his diverse array of minigames, retro aesthetics, and overwhelming optimism this month you've voted for @Rikifive and Super Cool Story Bros. So, let's get on with it, shall we?
 
How many modes & levels are Super Cool Story Bros & Chain Reaction intended to have when finished?
I honestly have no idea. Both games leave me almost infinite amount of possibilities.
- Chain Reaction is kinda like other arcade games such as 'Geometry Dash', 'Osu' (from what I saw) and things like this, so there always will be place for new levels with different mechanics, graphics or just with different music in background.
- SCB however, is slightly different. The idea is to make a huge crossover from NES games, so there probably will be many levels, but it's difficult to tell how many at the moment. I have few games, that I would like to cover in mind, but I'll probably remind myself more with progress. Or I can simply add more totally-custom ones like I did with the first levels in game. Either way, there will always be place for new levels, so even when the game will be considered as finished, I might release expansion-updates. If I had to guess how many levels would be, then I'm pretty sure it will have more than 100. That's all I can tell at the moment.

 

 
You mention in the SCSB tutorial that the gun's plugins could also be be various items. What guns/items are currently being considered?
Cubie designed their weapons to have the ability to port the data from various items into weapon plugins, so items like Fire Flower from Super Mario Bros will be 'readable' by their weapons.
I plan to implement many weapons, that players will be able to unlock with progress or by discovering secrets.
Let's say, that a player picks a Fire Flower from SMB world ~ once picked, they will be droppable by weapon crates (at random chances) in all worlds.
Planned weapons are:
Default Weapon Plugins:
> Shotgun
> Machinegun
> Grenade Launcher
> Laser (probably)
Items readable by weapons:
> Fire Flower (Super Mario Bros)
> Hammers (Super Mario Bros)
> Machine Gun (Contra)
> Spread Shot (Contra)
> Flame Gun (Contra)
> Laser (Contra)
> Stones (Big Nose The Caveman)
> [secret Weapons] ~ Secrets/Easter Eggs - Currently having an idea for a nice weapon or two.
>>> More to come ~ with progress and more games getting covered ~ I'll be trying to recreate as much as possible while trying to balance them with each other.

 

 
 

You mentioned using SCSB as a new platform for your old NESario project. Where did things go wrong with that project and how will they be better with SCSB?
To be honest everything was going well, but I kinda abandoned that project, because I simply didn't have time, due to working on something else (on MLPRPG to not search far).
Actually there was something that was not sufficient for me - NESari0 was being made in a game called 'Mari0', so besides entities/enemies from 'Mario' and 'Portal' there weren't many ways to customize things ~ only tiles and music because it was just a level editor, but it wasn't a big deal ~ I still loved working on and playing this with my brother over and over again.
 
Now when there was IiaW4, I've programmed a platformer engine as a sort of an experiment ~ to see how far it goes. I always had an idea on 'how' I could approach this and implement mechanics, but I wasn't sure of that and I didn't have time for this, because I had many projects to work on anyway. IiaW4 gave me an opportunity to actually check this out and write something, that probably was going to be a fail, but surprisingly it ended up quite well and it gave me an idea, which made me recycle older project for better.
 
With the new platform, I have control over everything, I can implement weapons, enemies, events and everything else I'd love to customize to make the game more accurate in many aspects.

 

You've got a lot of projects in development at the moment. How are you prioritising them?
The project, that has potential and has a value for me takes priority.
 
It will sound silly, but I really want to see SCB as a finished game, because I'll be playing this over and over again with my brother. To this day I love NES games, so a crossover of these with local multiplayer feature is everything I could ask for. And it's a 'light' project ~ by that I mean it doesn't require that much of work. That's why I'm focusing on this project at the moment.
 
On the second place there's the MLP project. Though I've discovered, that making RPG's isn't really for me, this project has a huge value for me and I really want to finish it for many reasons (that are hard to explain and would be even harder to understand (personal stuff)), though sadly it takes forever...
 
Other projects are much less important for me and are paused ~ simply because I have the more important ones to handle... not mentioning that some of them are just bad and I really don't feel developing them any further. I've started many projects because of IiaW contests, so they were made really quickly, which resulted in poor quality. ...And they're more like experiments than actually games I wanted to make.
 
By the way, it makes me feel really bad when somebody is mentioning/complimenting the projects, that I'm currently not working on... =/

 

 
With SCSB you've stated that nothing will be RTP. Since you've taken on every side of development (graphics, music, scripting and so on) what is your favourite part to work on?
I... I sincerely don't know. It's hard to tell as I like working on everything, once on scripting, then some graphics, even music ~ it gives variety.
Everything is fun to work with, but each part has its moments.
 
> I love scripting, because that's basically the core of making games - put your rules and customize everything. It isn't a very problematic thing for me, so it goes pretty nicely.
> I love making graphics. I ALWAYS loved drawing icons/HUDs and such and though I was and I'm still not that good at this, it's definitely what I like to do. =3
> As for music ~ I think I could say it's actually my least favorite part, because I don't have that much experience there. I started making music very recently, so my works aren't great. While I found that fun to work with, it's problematic for me. But I'm sure, that when I'll get better at this, then I'll be loving this as much as other parts, because I always wanted to make music.
 
I honestly love working on all of this as long as I'm going with the flow and everything goes well. I really can't decide what's best for me. I think I'm just an universal-type ponyman, hence having 'Game Developer' as a selected RM skill. I think I just like to make something on my own.
 
By the way, I didn't use RTP at all, because there's absolutely nothing I could use even if I wanted. The game mimics 8-bit style, so music from RTP is automatically disqualified and so on.

 

You've often stated your love of local multiplayer stems from playing with your brother. Has he played any of your games yet? What does he think?
Yes, he played some of them (to be exact, he played the following: SCB, Chain Reaction, Sleeping Hill and GvsE: TFC).
He's not 'woahing' at my works like my sister (he's kinda neutral ~ he likes them but not saying anything ~ just something like 'mmm nice.'), but he totally awaits to see some of these games (the ones with local coop [MLPRPG/SCB]) completed.
I was testing SCB with him and we had so much fun already.
Playing with my bother is the best thing in gaming. I was playing games with him since we're little foals kids and there's nothing better than sitting near each other and playing games (and breaking them ^^) together. We're liking the same things and we have the same style of playing games, so there is always fun even if the game is terrible. That's why I adore that feature.
 

 
To vote on next month's article (which will totally be on time, pinky promise) go here: http://www.rpgmakercentral.com/topic/38891-game-of-the-month-august-2016-voting-thread/

For more information and access to the demo go here: http://www.rpgmakercentral.com/topic/38667-super-coolstory-bros/

[Shiggy 630]

I've never seen Riki being so serious. It feels weird xD

[Rikifive 3,411]

I've never seen Riki being so serious. It feels weird xD

Yeah, it definitely lacks of silly jokes and an army of lenny faces. 

[Rezanta 373]

Well, I say it was worth it! Congratulations. :3

[Rikifive 3,411]

Thank you! =3

[lianderson 122]

Loved the talking T.V. (hopefully you can make him a reoccurring character in your future games)

[Rikifive 3,411]

 @lianderson Hehe, thank you!

I'll be thinking of it ~ especially as for main characters and Cubie.

[Rinoazelda 287]

You deserved it, Riki. Let's see if next month who's game will the Game of the Month.

[SomaelCK 89]

Omg! This game project make me smile uncontrollably! It's always great to see non-RPG from RM!

[Rikifive 3,411]

OOooooh I know, right? =3

Glad to hear read that! (=

[Nyuuchan353 147]

You deserved it, Riki. Let's see if next month who's game will the Game of the Month.

Might be mine, if I can get the story coherent enough. Mine will probably be about 40-60 hours long (40 w/ just story, 60+ w/ post-game and sidequests), with a New Game+ option. Seeing as I'm going to implement the NG+, might make multiple endings~.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Nyuuchan353

[Nirwanda 323]

Hey, congrats Riki. It was a nice read; great to know how The Man works. Good luck in your projects, you deserve all the praise you get and then some.

[Rikifive 3,411]

...Or how The Pony works. 

JK! 

Why, thank you! =3